NEW HP DV6 2010 User Review

Long time lurker finally decided to join, best to start of my post count with a lengthy review on HP's new DV6 line.

I’d like to give people interested in HP's new dv6 line a heads up. This came about mainly due to the lack of reviews anywhere on the internet. Anyone with a dv6, feel free to post your experience on the dv6.

Last weekend i purchased a HP DV6 3032tx with specs found here:

HP Pavilion dv6-3000 Entertainment Notebook PC series Home & Home Office

I went into JB HI-FI Australia buying a 13" mac and ending up getting this mainly due to the value, at a similar price as the dv6 was purchased at JB's cost price.

This has been my experience with the product so far

Design
The third generation of the dv6 line has been completely revamped by removing the numeric pad (I personally hate the num pads), and adding a nice chicklet keyboard with some quick launch buttons. One stand out factor is the thickness. It' still 30mm thick however the actually visible thickness is less than 1" thanks to some beautiful tapered edge design. The aluminium/magnesium shell with black keyboard is very mac like, and reminds me of HP's premium ENVY line of notebooks. On the i7 models only the palm rests and lids have a nice looking imprint finish which is very subtle and maintains its professional look. When the system is on, a HP logo glows white on the bottom left hand corner of the lid.

When opened the screen hinges drop the screen behind the main body revealing the 1366x768 15.6 LED display. Although it doesn't have an edge-to-edge glass display the surround black frame is absent of any rubber grommets used to hide screws to attach the frame. The only visible components are the HP’s ‘Truevision’ webcam and dual microphone inputs.

Display, Audio, Keyboard, Trackpad

One thing i noticed at JB was how washed out the screen was compared to the adjacent Toshiba laptop. Nevertheless as soon as i brought it home a quick display calibration fixed some poor colour outputs and unusually high gamma. The macs in my opinion still beat the HP’s screen. Viewing angles are average, particularly the vertical ones at most +/- 30deg before becoming unusable. Horizontal viewing angles fair much better at almost +/- 80degrees.

I’ve always been a fan of chicklet keyboards and this one is no exception, it is absolutely wonderful to type on. Wonderful feedback with unobservable flex on keys. One thing to note was that the caps lock indicator keys are built into the keys themselves with a small white led light on the top right corner of each corresponding key. The wifi key stays white when on and orange when off... again on the top right corner. I find it visible but small enough to notice it’s there. In complete darkness the lights do not distract me when viewing a movie.

The first time i used the trackpad i found it completely unusable. However the more i got used to it the more it became easier to deal with. One positive is that it’s placed directly in the middle of the system and not slightly to the left or right. I often found the cursor jumped from one side to another when my thumb was on the left click button and finger on the trackpad. Multi-touch scrolling works well although it cannot compare to apples offering. The left and right clicks are reasonably easy to press and result in a deep slightly muted click which i do not find disturbing. The texture of the trackpad however is very smooth and has a great response, one nice feature is switching off the trackpad simply by double tapping the top left hand corner.

The DV6's audio is a combination of altec lansing speakers with Dolby surround technology. This is particularly evident when playing through a good set of speakers or headphones. The speakers however have great treble and mid tones with distinct separation. The bass similar to other laptops in the same class.

Performance

well... i7 720 with a HD5650. It is hard to compare particularly as my only reference points are an asus eeepc and a i7+2x5870 desktop. In terms of benchmarks I’ve only run 3dmark06 which score 7682 points. Be aware this performance is only achievable when plugged in. The CPU will automatically downclock itself when on battery.

The only game I’ve installed is GTA4's episodes from liberty city. On the default "high" settings the system produced an average of 30fps.

Expect desktop levels of performance without compromising the 2.5kg portability the laptop offers. I would expect this system to handle AutoCAD and CS4 with ease. The i7 will open up the systems video editing potential.

Heat and Power
With all this power where does it come from? A gigantic 120W power brick. This is only in the i7 models however whereas the i5's get a 90W brick. Expect the combined weight of the brick and laptop to be 3.0kg.

HP's are traditionally known to run hot, i cannot speak for everyone but this HP runs COOL. Taken from HWmonitor the idle plugged in CPU and temps were 44,42,43,38 and 46 at an ambient of 22C. Running Furmark the Hd5650 reached a toasty 72C whilst the CPU made it to Prime95 temps of 76,77,78,77. These however a synthetic benchmarks designed to put 100% loads on each of these components. During both these time the fan was running on max and was clearly heard, but not disturbingly loud. Hot air is blown directly from the left hand side vent. Idle power draw for the system is 15.34W with a maximum draw of 45W. System heat dissipation was very good overall. The right palm rest remained cold to the touch and the left palm rest was only slightly warmer. Keys were only slightly warmer and bottom of the laptop was warm only near the exhaust vent.

Peripherals
Two usb 2.0's with power input and super multi-drive on the right and a Kensington lock slot. The DVD drive was a little poor in my opinion when compared to the rest of the design. HP could have placed a slot loading drive that would have complimented the rest of the design. Maybe these conventional drives reduce costs? Nevertheless i found that i have to press the button a few times before the drive opened. Somewhat disappointing.

On the right you'll find an SD card slot followed by headphone and mic jacks (which are the same colour????!!) another usb 2.0 port, an esata port, hdmi port, Ethernet port, vga and heat vent.

Just below the arrow keys there is a finger print reader which can be used as an alternative to logging into system, bank, email and eBay accounts on the websites. Once setup i found this feature a very useful time saving addition. The reader has a very high tolerance for incorrect swipes.

Battery life
This might be a deal breaker for some. Expect 3-3.5 hours on battery with 30% brightness with wifi on working through a word doc and browsing the internet. Doing something intensive (which is pointless which is pointless since the cpu under clocks itself) and expect about 1.5 hours.

One interesting point is that the i7's do not have switchable graphics with an on board Intel HD. This is confirmed on HP's website.

The point is people looking to buy this laptop expect short battery autonomy's, I’m rarely away from a power source for more than a few hours.

***Update*** After leaving the computer at 81% battery to go on standby by closing the lid, i was very pleased to recently open up the laptop to find the remaining battery to be 79% after 5 hours of standby. This is amazing considering how powerful this laptop even on an idle state. Comparing it against my eeepc i would typically lose atleast 15% battery life in that time.

Upgrading
Access to ram, wifi, and HDD is possible by unscrewing 1 single plate.

Pros
HP's "Keep It Simple Stupid" design works, makes it very professional
Beautiful MacBook like design particularly the silver/black i7 model
HP engineers made it look a lot slimmer than it really is
Performance for gamers, engineers and the like
wonderful keyboard
good speakers
thermal efficiency
fingerprint reader is useful for once

Cons
Touchpad takes getting used too
Out of box screen quality
Vertical viewing angles
conventional pop out dvd drive (why no slot drives HP?)
lack of OSD for brightness adjustment (there’s one for volume control, why not brightness also??)
The usual HP bloat ware

This is the second HP system I’ve bought. The first was a HP Tablet which was terrible. This system however is absolutely wonderful and I haven't yet regretted choosing this system over a 13" mac. Well done HP.

Below is a video briefly showing the system:
YouTube - NEW DV6 (MAY 2010) 3032tx!!!

 

Yay, first comment ...

Damn it... u beat me too it. i wanted to be the first to put up a review. I ordered mine from HP Direct and it should get to me by Friday or Monday.

Anyhow, nice review, now I know what to expect with my system. I guess Ill just do an un-boxing video.

 

keeping the trend of other reviews i will add some 3dmark06 and pcmark06 vantage photos and some images

 

Yeah. I meant to suggest that but something distracted me lol. Pics would be awesome, especially if your computer came with the backlit keyboard option. I'm so curious to see how that looks.

 

i was never aware of a blacklit keyboard option. If there was i will be very upset. But i think HP are putting touchscreens on them soon... hopefully i will be on ebay in a few months

Are you getting the i7 or the i5, since the i7's dont have switchable graphics option, but the silver and black looks alot better than brown and black

 

I'm getting the Core i5-540m. IMHO the core i7's aren't very good unless you need the performance and you don't mind the battery life or price (and intel chips are already overpriced as it is). they're also not a very good value since, as you stated, you need a discreet graphics card.

And sorry to disappoint you, but if you customize your own at HP's website ( HP Pavilion Dv6t Select Edition ) you can get add the backlit keyboard and touch screen option. Plus right now u get a free upgrade to Blu-ray rom. you should go and check it out and see if u want to return ur system. U might get a better value.

edit: Oh and if u sign up for HP academy (you need to be a student, a parent of a student or an educator) or if u sign up for bing cash back u save about 10%

 

problem is i live in Australia and the HP prices are 2x more here that usa despite the exchange rate being a 10% different.

The models we get are premade. I payed 1449 AUD for my system and thats with a discount from a friend. I just needed a strong laptop fast for some engineering work

actually going through the hp site building my current system it actually ending up costing more in USD :S. That backlit keyboard sure looks nice hopefully i can scab that off ebay later

 

wow that price thing is upsetting. but U still got a n awesome system. I hope the new HPss wont have too many problems.

 

Thanks for the review-well worded and precise.

Pictures would be welcome.

Could you add these details:

-brand and memory speed of RAM used.
-brand of display panel used.
-brand and buffer of hard drive.
-hinge design and quality.
-specifics of bloatware from HP.
-BIOS changes from the previous DV6's and available functionality.

TIA

 

I am trying to include images and other details but i have no idea how to add to an existing post. Any ideas?

 

There is a little edit button at the bottom right corner of your post next to Quote, multi-quote and quick reply.

 

Oh man, I can't wait until I get mine!

How is the weight compared to other notebooks?

 

Great review (+rep). When I ordered by dm4t I went back and forth on whether I wanted power or portability/battery but it looks like either choice would have been a great one. Personally, though, I prefer pop out optical drives to slot loads. I have never trusted slot loads (always scared my disc is gonna get stuck) and pop outs are easy to take out and replace with another hard drive.

 

Thanks for the review!

I'm curious how that color looks in person. Is that the "argento"? Is it as pinkish/brown as it looks in the video? Or is it actually silver?

 

the color is awesome in bright light its slilver and in low light its dark grey

 

PICS!!!! with Benchmarks of 3dmark06 and PCmark Vantage

http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/2897/dscf4486.jpg
http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/4748/dscf4495a.jpg
http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/7987/dscf4496.jpg
http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/5639/dscf4497t.jpg
http://img44.imageshack.us/img44/8008/3dmark062.png
http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/4910/pcmarkvantage.png

 

You might want to shrink those pictures.

 

can someone tell me how to resize images?

 

www.imageshack.us

 

So again, how does it feel weight- and size-wize?

Have you carried it around yet?

 

Its no heavier than my friends 2.5kg macbook pro 15". Actually its 2.49kg so same as having 2 netbooks in your bag. Amazing performance considering its weight and size.

obviously the 'slim effect' is lost when you carry around the laptop, although the weight is distributed evenly such that the laptop can be carried with a palm on the middle like a pizza!
Very easy to carry.
The alumium/magnesium makes the lid and palm rests very cold on after being idle for a little while

 

Alright great. Can't wait until mine is shipped! Haha, I have so many questions.

Did you have the BR add on or no?

 

Awesome. Thanks for answering my question! Enjoy the notebook...

 

unfortunately living in australia means you want to pay double what americans pay for customisation through the hp site.

In Aus we get various models. I have the 3032tx. the same spec although with a bluray drive and 8gb of ram (3042tx) costs $2K AUD.

Btw did some gaming tests, specificaly gta 4 episodes from liberty city. The system auto detected at 25 view, density and high all other setting at native resolution. played the first misssion at a constantly variable ~30fps.

 

Ah, cool.

Well, thanks for the review and answering a few questions.

 

Man. If only this thing was able to get 4.5-5 hours of battery with the standard battery I would be all over it.

 

Then go i5...switchable graphics, no? That'd get you closer to 4

 

That's true. I might end up returning my dm4. I just have to decide if I want the power of the dv6 or the portability of the dm4.

 

go fer da powah man

 

the i5 will easily get you 4.5-5hours with light usage on the Intel graphics, and the performance boost will be immediately noticable in games

the i7 albiet rates better in 3dmark, not sure how it compares in actual gaming.

This is from notebookcheck for the HD5650:

Aspire 7740G (Standard 1280x768) 430M 4096 MB 550 / 800MHz 1024MB DDR3 8.710.3.0 7356

On those settings i achieved 7660 3dmarks with the i7 (i have posted an image of this earlier)

 

I think ~4 is more likely, tbh. HP says the battery life is 5 hours and that is best case scenario. They give 10.5 as the estimate for the dm4t with 9 cell and I am getting ~8.

 

I'm surprised how cool it stayed. HP has definitely got its heat problems behind them. Congrats on your new laptop.

 

Yep, as soon as i finish up work, i will post some images of temps during benchmarking

 

Your PCMark reveals that your rig has an ATI 5750. While your 3DMark says you do have a 5650. Imageshack promptly won't show your images anymore after I typed this. I assume 3DMark is correct.

I went to Fry's earlier and saw the dv6t and Envy 13" and Envy 15". I was kinda surprised that the Envy wasn't as sexy as I thought it'd be...it's nice still...and that the dv6t itself almost felt like an Envy. It was lighter than I expected though it only had a simple GPU.

What I really want to know is how it runs other games...perhaps Starcraft II? Anything else for comparison besides that awfully coded GTA4 port.

 

yeah no problems man ive got a fair few steams games i can test even crysis 1. as for the 5750, i've noticed that issue too. It seems that though futuremark cannot recognize the mobility hd5650, but to my knowledge i highly doubt its as good as the desktop variant HD5750. I'll post up some more benchies tonight

 

This thing should run Starcraft II on high settings, medium at the worst. Shouldn't be a problem for the rig, as Starcraft II is not a demanding game as far as GPU is concerned. Crysis II and some of the other new games might have a harder time, but they should still run on low settings fine.

 

can you share gpu-z ss?

 

the asus ul30vt with the nvidia 210m can run starcraft II beta at medium at native resolution... plays it very very well

this ati 5650 should have no problem with starcraft II

yeaaa!

 

Nice review.

I'm curious on the performance between the 5400rpm and 7200rpm drives. Debating whether to get the 640 or 500GB.

Also waiting/hoping for a different resolution choice. Not keen on the 1366x768.

-K

 

I'm in the UK and I'm not sure this model is out yet (and I'm surprised it's already out in Oz since it was only released in the US on May 19). I agree - Australia is now a very expensive country to live - cost of living is getting too absurdly high IMO.

I agree - wish they had a higher resolution than 1300 x 900 ish.

Has anyone got the touchscreen version? I wonder how good or useful that is.

 

I was wondering about the noise. Is it loud when not under stress?

 

its hard to judge the sound, if the volume is on 20% or more it drowns out the fan? not sure if that helps.

When not gaming its silent.

 

Thanks. Looks like a good laptop, but not enough autonomy for me

 

what kind of autonomy do u want? lol

 

usually theres a trade off... power for portabilty (ie weight, size and battery life). I suggest look at the dm4t

 

Classic Engrish I mean battery life of course.

 

that dm4t looks real tasty. I'm still waiting for the Envy 14 to get reviewed.

 

Hey OP can you see what type of wireless card came with the computer?

 

OT: is this because of a direct translation from french? When I went to a french cell-phone forum with google translate on, I didn't understand why half the posts there were about autonomy.